Journey to Peace Village

Last week I took a journey to Perfume Pagoda, one of the most famous Buddhist shrines in Northern Viet Nam.
It's located about two hours outside of Ha Noi by bus. When our group left the bus we piled onto a small rowboat for a half hour journey down the Nest River. Arriving at dockside is only the bigging of the trip to Perfume Pagoda.
At dockside there are many different shops, where you can buy offerings for the shrine and memorials for your loved ones. There are also many food shops. The most interesting were stalls where you can buy freshly baked breads shaped like crabs, fish and various other animals.
From there it is a climb up a mountain. And I mean climb! You start out making your way up a shallow incline on a path paved with loose stones worn smooth from the feet of many before you. This is a treacherous walk of several hundred yards.
After that, it's a series of endless, rough hewn steps cut into the mountain, interspersed with breaks of relatively level ground. The trek takes about an hour to an hour and a half. By the end I was drenched by sweat and huffing and puffing. Vietnamese people shook my hand congratulating me on my stamina.
But I was still not there. Next is a descent into a cave at the top of the mountain. The cave is accessible only by a series of wet steps, once again made of rough hewn rock cut into the mountain. There is a rope to hang onto, but sometimes it dips to low for a relatively "tall" Westerner like me to reach.
Finally I arrived. The grotto is beautiful, with an eerie light bouncing off the stalagtites and several Buddhist shrines blazing in golds and reds. It's called Perfume Pagoda because in the last century it was rife with incense burning. The incense is banned now, but many people leave offerings of food in hopes for achieving spiritual or temporal goals. As our guide, Cuong, explained, Perfume Pagoda is the place to go to request good luck in life, finding a suitable partner for marriage, success in a career, or any other need you have in life.
The whole process of strenous climbing and descent can't help but remind one of the hard work we need to put into life and the times we must "descend" to gain a new birth or go to the next stage of our lives.
For me, the most impressive sight was being in the grotto and then looking back out at the light streaming in. It was like walking into a rebirth. Which is what I hope for, a rebirth in career, a rebirth in creativity, a new song to fill my heart!
For more information on the pagoda:
http://www.vietscape.com/travel/chuahuong/

Labels: religion and culture, tourism, Viet Nam